The transmission of optical signals within an optical transmission system utilize optical fiber for the transmission of the optical signals between an optical transmitter and an optical receiver. Optical fibers are created using processes that provide the optical fiber with certain known characteristics. These characteristics, such as the refractive index, are achieved using doping and other chemical techniques in order to imbibe the preforms used for creating the optical fiber with certain desired refractive index. The process for doping an optical fiber preform is a costly process and improved methods for generating optical fiber preforms that provide optical fibers having characteristics that better enable the transmission of, for example, orbital angular momentum processed and orthogonal function processed optical signals is desired.